County getting $2.1 million to help homeless

Thursday

Jan 31, 2019 at 6:18 PMJan 31, 2019 at 6:18 PM

Roger Phillips Record Staff Writer @rphillipsblog

“Jessica claims that she isn’t homeless, she just likes to sleep outside of the buildings that she owns, across from the bank that she owns, and that she is just waiting for her children to come and pick her up any minute now.” — from a report on homelessness among the mentally ill in San Joaquin County.

San Joaquin County supervisors voted this week to formally accept $2.1 million in “No Place Like Home” (or NPLH) state housing funds designated for use to address homelessness among the seriously mentally ill. Pursuit of competitive grants on an ongoing basis is still to come.

As laid out by the state, NPLH funds are intended to be used to “acquire, design, construct, rehabilitate, or preserve permanent supportive housing for persons who are experiencing homelessness, chronic homelessness or who are at risk of chronic homelessness, and who are in need of mental health services.”

Former Gov. Jerry Brown signed the original legislation three years ago, and nearly two-thirds of California voters in November approved the issuance of up to $2 billion in previously authorized bonds to provide financing for NPLH.

Here’s a look at the issue.

THE PROBLEM

On Wednesday, numerous volunteers fanned out across Stockton to conduct a biennial Point-in-Time census of the city’s unsheltered homeless population. It will take several months to compile the results, but the numbers from 2017 provide a sense of the problem’s scope.

Two years ago, countywide, 567 unsheltered men, women and children were counted. More than 30 percent self-reported as suffering from mental illness. Nearly 45 percent acknowledged a problem with drugs and/or alcohol.

According to the state’s numbers from 2017, California’s homeless population was more than 134,000. Nearly 35,000 of those individuals (26 percent of the homeless) were suffering from mental illness and more than 24,000 (18 percent) struggled with chronic substance abuse.

BARRIERS

There are many reasons why an individual can become homeless; among them are high rent, a past arrest, a previous eviction or a poor credit history.

Those with mental illness face additional obstacles in maintaining their housing, according to the county report. Among these challenges are escalations of symptoms, lengthy hospitalizations and conflict with other tenants.

NO PLACE LIKE HOME

The new program is to provide loans for the development of permanent supportive housing for mentally ill individuals who are homeless or at risk of becoming chronically homeless.

The funds are for multifamily rental projects of at least five units, and the funds can be used to renovate existing housing. Eligible renters’ household incomes cannot exceed 30 percent of the county’s median income.

The county will be looking to pass funds on to qualifying developers, said Greg Diederich, director of the county's health care services. Projects could be new or existing refurbished buildings.

“We’re looking for long-term apartment-style buildings where our consumers are intermingled with, not isolated strictly in developments that are for mental health consumers but are in the community with others,” Diederich said.

“Matthew was living in a one-room apartment and doing well in treatment. The place was dilapidated but it was a place he could call his own. Then violence erupted on the street and a person was murdered on the building’s front step. Matthew tried to shrug it off, but the images were too haunting and he became more and more frightened of repeated violence. The images triggered more delusions and he began to have a harder time staying sober and on his medications. He began sleeping at a friend’s house and later on the streets.” — from the county report.